7 Mar: 28th

I had a ltr from the noble captain 5 days ago to tell me
that He is about 
& to set sail in a week so I
hope to be with him to morrow or next day. --I shall carry him a 
packet.  will help to ballast his ship for tis very heavy.

I send you the parsons ltr and as it happens mine too for he never
liv'd to receive it.  --- I also send you a sort of half Squabble I had with
the Bp of Sodor & Man, --I lent it to a friend, and He so dirtied and so tare'd it
I was forc'd to get an old Servant to copy it & send to him, by which means
I have a copy of my own nonsense which unfortunately for you intends
to try to find its way to Maryland, ---He is a good kind of Man and I
have a great respect for him, but He has a little too much Buckram
& Stiffing in his constitution which I want to wash out, but I doubt He
won't stand the rubbing, for I have had a little short tiffy sort of a letter 
from him, but I don't mind that, I at him again, & we shall meet in
the Spring & I hope good friends.  If He Proves Sulky, my method will be
to give him time to recover his temper. --His Ltr & will explain
themselves, & save you trouble.  I send you Ciceros Ltr with 'em to make 
you some amends for my own.

I send you also some little things you may not have seen, a few
of 'em are not bad. --With em come some Doggrel which may make you
laugh if you can bear a lttle of what is vulgarily & unphilophically call'd
nastiness 

I send you too a mine in which you will find some gold. if you
can have patience to pick it from the Dross, and if you love to look over
old Ltrs as well as I do you will not be displeas'd with the Task You
may throw 'em by when you begin to be tir'd but not into the fire for
I most earnestly entreat you to return ' em to me by the same honourable
hand that brings 'em to you. -- Sketches of Reubens are bettere than Sr Joseph Lawlring [?]

He tells me you desire a particular account of my health.  All that is very
[well] & very kind, but I don't see Dear Sr why my health is to be inquired into so very 
particularly like a bale of goods at the customs house & your Health is to be
smuggled to me, I don't understand this unequal distribution of things at all...
has a right to distribute unequally, but not man to man we are to submit to 
the first, and 
must be given up as inexplicable & inscrutable after
so many foolish enquiries by so many egregious fools for so many hundred years,
who have given it up, I ask pardon, a fool never gives any thing up, but the 
endeavour to cease being being a fool. ---upon looking over your Ltr I find you have
been more particular about yr health than I thought you had, & so I ask your
pardon.  I am glad to observe what you say about the most provoking circumstance
of yr health, "others pretending to know what you ail better than you do yr self."
It is provoking I know it by experience. --This is a customary way of speaking
& must be understood  
for happy is the man where that is the
greatest grievance but i have said so my self forty & forty times when I have
been provoked with this consumate sagacity of fools & wits too when I have
been near expiring.  --I began to suspect some juggle upon me when I saw
Q.D.C. under the Capt.s name which can mean nothing, but 

and his boggling a little when I asked him how yr health was.  D-mn it thinks
I to my self Is my Health to be Scrutiniz's into and expos'd, & my friend
is to keep his lock'd up in a box with Hierogrlyphics upon the lid.  It might
be designed to enquire whether I had a
upon me or
whether my Senses were all as they should be but now I find you had